The invention relates generally to animal feeders, and, more particularly, to ad-lib animal feeders.
It is often desirable to provide an on-demand supply of food for animals. Consequently, a goal of design in animal feeders has been to increase accessibility of food to the animals and to maintain a constant supply of food so that the animals are able to eat at all times. In order to meet this goal, it is important to incorporate design features which increase general access to the food, which reduce food wastage, and which facilitate cleaning the feeders and the animal pens containing the feeders.
One type of currently available feeder is an enclosed, food holding bin, positioned over a trough which attaches firmly on or under a pen wall or divider panel. One shortcoming of such wall-mounted feeders is the difficulty of attaching and detaching them from the walls or divider panels. Whenever a pen is to be cleaned or merely rearranged, stock tending personnel must detach the wall mounted feeder and reattach it on completion of this task. Given the substantial attachment of the feeders to the pen walls, such detachment and reattachment requires significant time and energy.
Another limitation of feeders that attach to a wall or divider panel is that they permit feeding from one direction only. Thus, only a small number of animals may feed from a particular feeder at one time. Furthermore, because they are enclosed, the feeding stations are dimly lit inside despite the aperture for the animal's head. Animals may consequently be intimidated by such closed troughs, discouraging consumption. These troughs additionally tend to have an excess of food storage and require only infrequent food additions. More frequent food additions are desirable to insure fresher food for the animals. The combination of darkness and excess storage also accounts for the considerable food wastage generally associated with their use.
Unattached pans or feeding boards have also been used to provide ad-lib feeding to animals. These devices exhibit additional problems. Animals tend to move or even overturn the unattached pans or feeding boards when eating, resulting in significant food wastage and, consequently, times when food is not being presented to the animals.
The problem of providing continuous on-demand feeding for animals demands greater access to food, increased ease of positioning and cleaning, and reduced wastage of food.